Cosmic Dust as a Prerequisite for the Formation of Complex Organic Molecules in Space?

In cold, dense astrophysical environments dust grains are mixed with molecular ices. Chemistry in those dust/ice mixtures is determined by diffusion and reaction of molecules and radicals. However, investigations of diffusion of astrophysically relevant radicals and molecules across the surface and through the pores of cosmic dust grains and of surface reactions consequent to such diffusion are largely uncharted territory. This paper presents results of a study of a solid-state reaction of two molecular species, CO₂ and NH₃, separated by a layer of porous silicate grain aggregates, analogues of cosmic dust. The experiments demonstrate that the presence of the dust layer was necessary for a pure thermal CO₂ + 2NH₃ reaction to proceed, leading to the formation of ammonium carbamate (NH₄⁺NH₂COO⁻), an ionic solid containing a complex organic moiety of prebiotic interest recently detected in a protoplanetary disk. This result speaks for (i) efficient diffusion of molecules on/within cosmic dust, (ii) an underestimated role for surface catalysis in the astrochemistry of cosmic dust, and (iii) potentially efficient dust-promoted chemistry in warm cosmic environments, such as protostellar envelopes and protoplanetary disks.